31 Day Challenge! Day 27: Inspired by artwork

Hello all! Today's challenge was to create nail art inspired by artwork.  I originally wanted to do a Jackson Pollock painting but I just can't figure out how to create splatter! It was so frustrating! Ultimately, I choose to do a painting by one of my favorite artists, Claude Monet. My inspiration was his painting Water Lilies (The Clouds.)

31 Day Challenge! Day 25: Inspired by Fashion

Hello! Well today's nails came out a little bit interesting. I don't consider myself a fashion person. In fact, all I wear are jeans and T shirts. Which means today's challenge was just that, a challenge. So I went to Vogue for some fashion advise. I ended up finding this really bizarre yet intriguing pantsuit to use for my inspiration.

Keep reading to see the nails!

31 Day Challenge! Day 19: Galaxies

Hello there! I first tried my hand at galaxy nails back in May for the Phoenix Comicon. I tried a couple times in fact. You can read the post here. I always have an image in my head when I think of my nail designs and sometimes the image just doesn't transfer well to the nail. This is one of those times. The nails still come out pretty but not how I imagined. The untried polish for today's challenge is essence Meet Me Now!

2012 Summertime Challenge! Week 8: Inspired by a Summer Song

Hello all! I'm a little sad that my challenge is almost over but a little relieved as well. Doing three challenges at once is a little exhausting! Today's challenge was just that, a challenge. The objective was to make a design inspired by a song that paints the picture of summertime for you. I instantly thought about the song, "In the Summertime" by Mungo Jerry but I was afraid it would be too hard, so after looking into some Beach Boys and a couple of others I just went a head with my original idea.

I used a sponge to create the clouds and a nail art brush to create the rest. The base color is Piggy Polish Blue-ing Romance. The rest of the colors are all acrylic paint. 

Here's a video of the song. It's apparently the original video from 1970 so it's a little odd. I enjoyed it though, it's a catchy song :)

Only one week left of my challenge! Here's a look at the last theme:

Week 9: Water you doing? Create a summer-themed water marble--- This can be anything that makes you think of summer; water, sand, bright colors, neon, etc. 

Week 9 will be posted on Friday the 21st. What I find funny is that Day 20th of the 31 Day Challenge is also a water marble! That means back to back water marble nails! I'm pretty bad at water marbling, so at least I will get some practice in! 

See you tomorrow!

Erin

Let's Do the Time Warp Challenge! Day 1: I should have been born in...

Hello all! First off I would like to say hello to all of my new readers! Hi! I'm so excited to share my nails with you :) If you are new then I need to catch you up with what's going on here on the blog. I am currently involved in 2 nail art challenges, which is turning into 3 since I am starting this one today. Three nail art challenges! AHHH! I am crazy haha This is what happened...I created a challenge that's only once a week back in July, then I started doing the 31 day challenge, THEN I was on the lovely Neverland Nail Blog and saw that she was hosting a new challenge. Lindsey's new challenge sounded like so much fun I just couldn't pass it up. Here's the layout.

Doesn't this sound like so much fun?! I am very excited because not only is this challenge going to be fun, I could potentially win a prize! Wahoo! Lindsey is going to be posting every Monday and Wednesday. I'm thinking I will join her on those days, I just had to post today due to yesterday's traveling and pampering my injured ankle.

Day 1: I should have been born in... The idea was to pick a  decade we wish we could have lived in. I choose the 1970s. This was the time of peace, love and happiness. There were go go dancers and hippies, and the beginning of disco! Though I love Disco, I choose to channel the hippy/tye dye part of the 70s. I used a sponge for my thumb and pinky. For the rest of my nails, I did water marbling. It actually came out good! I was amazed haha. 

What I used:

• Base color: Sally Hansen Coral Reef
• Thumb and pinky: 
• SH Coral reef, SH Sun kissed, SH Mellow yellow
• Makeup sponge
• White stamping polish. 
• BM 322, BM 320, BM203.
• Index, middle, ring fingers: 
• Sally Hansen Coral reef, SH Sun kissed, SH Mellow Yellow, SH Blue me Away, and essence Lime up! 
• Water, dixie cup, toothpick. 
• White stamping polish, 
• BM 304, BM 07, BM 205.
• Various sized nail art brushes. 

I think my nails came out pretty groovy man. Stay tuned for Day 2 of this challenge and Day 12 of the 31 Day Challenge tomorrow. 

See you then!
Erin

31 Day Challenge! Day 10: Gradient Nails

Hello all! Here are my gradient nails! I apologize for posting so late. I went to Las Vegas for the weekend and didn't get home until about 6:30 tonight. Not only am I exhausted from the long ride, but I have a problem. During the trip, I some how managed to sprain my ankle! It's nothing major but it's painful and hard to walk on. I've been icing it and resting, which is why this post was delayed.

Smile, it's Sunday! Bundle Monster 304

Hello all! I can't believe it is Sunday already! Where has the week gone? Today is one of those lazy Sundays too. You know what goes good with a lazy Sunday? Stamping! My new Bundle Monster plates arrived the other day and I couldn't be more excited. There are 150 images to play around with; some patterns, others just cute little images. I plan to use all of them and today is the start of achieving that goal!

My new plates brought a smile to my face, so I thought it would be appropriate to begin with some smiles!

How cute is this? I just can't stop looking at my nails and smiling. BM 304 is a very cute plate and guaranteed to bring a smile to your face....and your nails. 

I look forward to using the other images on this plate, it's just so cute! I originally thought about doing the smiley faces yellow but I hate how yellow tends to look against my skin tone. So the hints of yellow you are seeing is the one coat I had painted on before I switched to pink. 

After painting one coat of yellow and hating it, I used one coat of hot pink. Once dry, I sponged on Orly After Party, a dark blue-ish color with itty bitty pink and purple glitter.

What I used:

• 1 coat Ulta Sun-sational
• 1 coat OPI  La Paz-itively Hot
• Orly After Party
• Make up sponge
• Konad white stamping polish, Princess
• BM 304

Overall I am happy with this stamp and the color combo I used. As I mentioned before, I plan to use all 150 images included in the new Bundle Monster plates, so make sure to come back every Sunday to see some stamping! 

Until next time, 

Erin

2012 Summertime Challenge! Week 4: Sea, Sand and Surf

Hello! Today starts week 4 of the challenge! This week's theme is sea, sand and surf. The idea was to do either one category or a combo of categories to make a nail art design that would make anyone wish they were at the beach. I think I succeeded combining sea animals and sand. 

It took some time to create this mani but overall I think it came out pretty good. I do love how my design came out, especially my thumbs. I was very unhappy with the way my right hand was photographing though! Apologies for that crappy work. 

I could probably spend all afternoon telling you guys all that I did and what I used to create this nail art but instead I'll just list supplies and tell you a little bit about my techniques.  The back grounds of my thumbs, middle fingers and ring fingers where sponged. I used two nail stickers for my right ring finger and right pinky. Everything else I painted by hand. 

What I used:

• CND Stickey base coat*
• Piggy Polish Blue-ming Romance
• Ulta Maine attraction
• Orly Decades of Dsyfunction
• China Glaze Street chic
• L.A. Colors Art Deco Bright Green
• Orly Bell of the ball
• Ulta Encore pink
• Claire's Beachy Keen
• Acrylic paints: Whtie, peach, red, yellow, blue, black
• Make up sponge for sponging
• Dotting tool
• Variety of nail art brushes
• Nail stickers I got from Walmart years ago
• Seche Vite fast drying top coat

*I just purchased CND Stickey base coat and this is the first mani were I have used it. I can already tell that this base coat and I are going to be friends. I sure hope so, my last one was awful. At first it was ok but it started peeling my nails and it was so tacky, applying polish was a nightmare. I have heard good things about CND Stickey and it's what Chalkboard Nails uses for her nails. I am curious if it's suppose to feel cool when you are applying it to nails, has anyone else experienced that with is? 

So we are already four weeks into the challenge! I am having a lot of fun coming up with ideas. I hope you guys are enjoying them. 

Next week should definitely be interesting. I've lived in Arizona since I was five and there's never been a shortage of scorching weather during the summer. Needless to say, I have inspiration for Hot hot hot! 

Week 5: Feelin’ HOT HOT HOT--- It’s scorching outside. Show it on your nails! 

Just a reminder: If you are interested in joining in the fun, you can! It's not too late! Everyone is welcome to participate and if you can't commit to every week, that's ok! I want to see what you guys can come up with. If you are interested contact me! 

Until next time, 

Erin

Galaxy Nails

Hello! Today's post is about galaxy nails! I decided to try galaxy nails in honor of the 25th Anniversary of the television series, Star Trek The Next Generation. The cast is doing a tour for the anniversary and some of them made a stop at the Phoenix Comicon, so I was also to see the anniversary panel and a couple of the side ones with some of the cast. It was SO fun, I went to all four days of the event and I had the best time!

On to the nail art! The first picture below is actually of my second attempt at galaxy nails, which I wore for the last three days of the con, while the second picture is of my first and failed attempt, which I wore for the first day. Gosh do I hate how my first attempt came out.

Second attempt (success) 

I really love how the colors blended in this second attempt. This post would be far to long if I explained everything I did, so I'll just summarize for you. I first painted all of my nails black (two coats) and then I sponged on the beginning of the nubulas with white. After that is where it gets complicated, basically I just sponged on a few more colors and then did a layer of glitter polish for stars and then a top coat. I found my inspiration for my nubulas from the tutorial that I found on Copythatcopycat. As for what I used, besides the usual- base coat, top coat, I used a makeup sponge and glitter polish. 

First attempt (fail)

For my first attempt, I found my inspiration while watching this Cutepolish video. Cutepolish always has some cute tutorials and this one was good but I wasn't a big fan of how my big stars turned out. I also used two different glitter polishes, one with silver glitter and another with purple and blue glitter. It was glitter over kill in my opinion. If I had left out the ugly big white stars and the colored glitter, this design would have been cute. The only addition tool I used for this first design was dotting tools.

And as I mentioned, Phoenix Comicon was so much fun! I must thank my best friend Tara again for paying for my pass. Being unemployed is really crappy and depressing, so it's wonderful to have such a great support system. She supports me in many ways, like my nail polish addiction and my need to see all the Star Trek people. I couldn't ask for a better best friend.

My favorite part was sitting second row, near center, to the panel for Michael Dorn. Michael Dorn is the actor who played Lt. Worf on both TNG and Deep Space 9. I've always loved the character and after listening to Michael Dorn gush about aviation, I am completely smitten with him as well. My boyfriend might have to watch out haha ;) Here's a picture I took of Michael Dorn. He looks as if he is staring right at me! It was so cool and next to him in a picture of him in his Klingon makeup.

Michael Dorn/ Worf

Now that I have finished gushing about he very sexy Michael Dorn, I have some questions for y'all! Have you ever attempted galaxy nails? Did you like your outcome? What technique did you use? I was very happy with my second attempt at galaxy nails and I hope to do more in the future, possibly a tutorial as well. What is something you geek out about? I defintly geek out about a lot of things, like Worf haha. :) I also found a great video for all who are interested. It's the taping of the panel, the whole hour! If you like Michael Dorn, you will enjoy this!

Until next time,
☮Erin